New Delhi: At the fourth day of the Lit Live lecture in Mumbai last week, Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy delivered a speech which resounded with many prominent pioneering leaders in the country. The Infosys co-founder said that “Indians have highest ego per unit of achievement”.

Murthy was going to speak about city systems and how it all could be improved through different measures. He pointed a number of things which was holding Indian cities back from becoming a world class metropolitan city.

“The biggest challenge for all of us, not just politicians or bureaucrats, is that we, Indians, have the highest ego per unit of achievement. I would humbly request, we be open-minded to those who have performed better than us,” said Murthy.

Narayana said that it was know-it-all attitude which was a propelling factor for the slow working of the government processes. He set the example of Nandan Nilekani who is the driving force behind Aadhaar cards.

“Nandan was giving a lecture on his experience in designing and implementing Aadhaar sometime back. Somebody asked him how difficult was it to work in Delhi. Nilekani responded by saying, ‘The first hurdle that you come across is that they (bureaucrats) say we know this. The toughest hurdle is if they say we are already doing this. There isn’t much to do then.'”

Murthy also set the example of the time when he was an IT advisor for the Thailand PM. “They (Thai officials) would make a presentation and I would give suggestions. They would write those down. The next time I went there, they would show me how they’ve (the suggestions) been implemented,” said Murthy.